Will the rabbits stay away?

Earlier this year I planted quite a few flowers and just as they were about to bloom the nasty rabbits in my yard would eat the little buds that were about to bloom. It got to the point that I was almost ready to sit in the yard and shoot the little critters. I was doing some research and I thought I'd place some marigolds that I had in a container beside the plants and see it it would work at keeping the little buggers away. If they do I can already tell you that I will be planting quite a few next year. They will be my border plant all around my yard.

The Circle in the front

I am by no means a landscaper but I do want my yard to look nice. In the front of my house is a large circular driveway, and I have been wanting for years to put something to frame the circle to make it look better than it does. Well this year I decided that it would be the year to do it. When I told my husband all he said was put something up so I will not mow it with the lawn mower. That got me to thinking. What could I use. Pine straw is very plentiful in my area, so I figured it would be the perfect mulch. I have been using large sticks or should I say roots to frame the area, I have six very large oak trees in my yard I am simply digging or pulling up the roots that visitors and my family trip over. I would buy something to frame it with, but I want to see just how good it looks this way before I start doing that. I don't think it looks that bad. If I do start using something else to frame it with I am open to suggestions.

I have several Butterfly bushes I started from seed this year and I have been putting them about six to eight feet apart abound the circle. I just don't know what all colors I will have when they finally start blooming. The seed mix I bought was a mix of colors so it will be a surprise to see what colors I end up with. As of now I have six butterfly bushes planted and I have plan to plant two more in the circle. A part of me can't wait to see what the circle looks like next year and the year after that.

My bush dwelling yard cat

I am lucky to have a wonderful home with a wonderful family. My family also is fortunate enough to have a pet, a cat. It is said that cats are one of two types. Tree dweller or a bush dweller. I can say with much confidence that my cat is a bush dweller. She will climb trees but her favorite spot is laying on the ground and chasing moles. And last I heard moles do not live in trees they live in the ground. May bee that's why she likes the ground so much. Anyway MY cat is a blessing and as far as I am concerned she earns her keep by getting rid of the pest around the house, I just wish she would start chasing away the rabbits that have been eating my vegetables.

Woodpecker on the feeder in the yard

I have a bird feeder in my yard and a red bellied woodpecker was hungry enough to stay on the feeder long enough for me to snap a picture. I have seen the male, female and even a juvenile this year.

Avocado update

Well I was looking at my plants today and noticed that my avocado has some more growth on it. Since I placed it outside I did not really know what it would do. It was so dry last week and this week so far it has been like the monsoons. I am happy to say that the little plant is still alive and growing. My brother is trying to grow one as well. I am looking forward to seeing how big his is. I started mine several months before he did so I don't expect his to be larger than mine. I will have to wait and see what it looks like and see just how big it is. Last I spoke to him he said his had nine leaves while mine had only four. The biggest thing was the leaves on mine were around six inches long and it looked like a leaf as you can see in the picture. The leaves on his did not really look like leaves to me. I have no idea how big this plant will get but it really does not matter I am having fun and that is the important thing.

Amaryllis bulb sprouts

I have started planting my new crop of amaryllis seeds. So far I have eight in small pots. To date I have three sets of them. 2009, 2010, and now 2011. It takes them around five years for the bulb to get large enough to bloom. I am hopeful that everything will be good and that I will have some wonderfully beautiful plants. I only have two more years to go before I expect the first set to bloom. When I see the first bud start to emerge from the bulb I know that I will be so excited and happy.

Avocado plant in a pot

Several months ago I started germinating an avocado seed. I placed it in a jar just like you do a potato. It took several months but it sprouted and it finally got big enough to put in a pot. I know I will not be able to plant it outside because I live in the wrong part of the country, but I will have a nice plant in the house. While the weather is nice I will keep it outside, but as soon as it starts to get a bit chilly inside it will come.

Dahlia bud

It was around February 14 that I bought a yellow Dahlia and planted it in the yard. I had never planted one before, but I figured I had good luck with amaryllis and my little girl liked the way it looked so I thought I'd give it a try. It is a slow grower considering that it has been in the ground as long as it has. Actually I dug the thing up back in April because I thought it wasn't going to do anything. It has tiny roots starting so I put it back in the ground and figured I'd wait. I ignored the thing until I started seeing some life. Now it is on the verge of blooming. This particular color is called Seattle. It is suppose to be yellow and white. I am looking forward to it blooming, I just hope that the rabbits don't eat it first.

Butterfly bush bloom

I was so excited yesterday when I went outside to look at my plants. I could not believe my eyes I had a bud on one of my butterfly bushes. I bought the seeds in January of this year and planted them in February. The seeds were nothing more than dust and at the time I was not sure if they would germinate. I had never grown anything like that before and was not sure if I would be successful. Well I guess I must be doing something right because I have a bloom on it. To say I was excited is an understatement. My big question now is what color will it be. According to the seed packet the color could be white, lilac, blue or purple. I have a total of five planted in my yard with five more in pots so I am very hopeful that I will have more than one color. Several of the pots actually have more that one plant growing in it. I thought about separating them but changed my mind. I did not want to risk damaging the plant or possibly killing it when I took them apart, also I thought that by some chance the plants are a different colors it will look amazing when they bloom together. I just cant wait, I know they will be absolutely beautiful.

Coleus blooming

My coleus are really blooming like crazy. I have been trying to pinch off the buds because if you pinch off the buds the plant will bush out and will live longer. Honestly it is harder than you think. I will pinch off a bud today and tomorrow the plant will have two or four more in its place. I may move quite a few plants inside this winter if I have the room, and I am going to work very hard to have the room.

Peppers in the garden

I planted a carnival pack of bell pepper this year and I had absolutely no idea what colors they were going to be. I gave several to my in-laws they ended up with a bright yellow pepper and as you can see I ended up with a purple one. I do not eat peppers but I do love to watch them grow. My husband tasted this one and said it had a very bitter taste. I have no idea what the yellow one taste like. I will say that of everything I have planted this year the banana peppers have done the best. I have not picked many of them because I am waiting to see if they change color. Most banana peppers start one color and end up another. I have had a banana pepper in the past to go from green to yellow and then it turned red. I will have to wait and see what color I end up with.

A Green Coleus in the yard

Earlier this year I planted coleus plants. They have all grown very big, but the one that really surprised me was the green one. This is the only one I have ever seen that was completely green. Most of the ones I have seen are red, pink, a deep red that almost looks black. I was amazed that I had one that was completely green. To be honest my husband was surprised as well. This is the second year I have planted coleus and I can assure you it will not be the last. I am hopeful that I will be able to grow them and sell them. There is a nursery in my area and I am hopeful that they will let me work there part time, it not I hope that they will sell me some of the used greenhouse pots that they have. Honestly I would not mind getting used pots as part of my wages. I can clean them out and then plant more plants. I know how to clean the pots out so that there are no harmful bacteria in them. I have not contacted the nursery because I can't work anywhere now because, at least not until my little girl starts school. That will be in august of this year. I will contact them then, I have thought about contacting them just to enquire about the pots, who knows they might just give them away, if not I might be able to get them very cheap. It never hurts to ask.

New Amaryllis bulb 2011

This is a bulb I started this year. The quarter beside it is a typical size quarter. I like the fact that you can see the two roots that are growing on the beginning bulb. To me it is amazing that a flower as large as the Amaryllis can start from such a small seed, but then it has always amazed me about how plants can grow from such small seeds, especially when the seeds are little more than dust for example a butterfly bush.
I will say one thing, if you want to grow Amaryllis bulbs you have to be patient because it takes an estimated five years before it will reach blooming size. The worst thing for me is the waiting to find out what color the flowers will be because when you start growing it from a seed there is a very good possibility that the flower when it finally blooms will not be the same color as the parent plant. You can blame that one on hybrids. If the bulb has an offshoot the offshoot bulb will be the same color as the parent plant. To date none of my bulbs have had any off shoots, but I am hopeful that one day when will. All I have to do is take care of them.

Dirt recipes

In my previous post I told you about just how poor my soil is, and that if I want anything to grow I have to keep it in containers. I felt that I needed to explain how I do some things. First when I plant something in a container I always make my own soil so to speak. I have a specific recipe I use for bulbs and specific recipe I use for everyday plants . The secret for bulbs is bone meal. I would never plant a bulb without mixing bone meal in the soil, or at the very least putting a small amount of bone meal at least a half inch to an inch below the roots. Bone meal is suppose to be good for the roots and helps them grow better and faster. If you think about it, that is all a bulb really is a large root. I also use the same bulb dirt recipe for flowering tubers as well.

Bulb dirt recipe

2 parts potting soil (sometimes I will use 1 miracle grow and 1 cheap potting soil)

1 part peat moss

1 part course sand (or you can use perlite)

Bone meal as per package directions

I have used this recipe with all my bulbs and it has never steered me wrong.

Bad dirt = small plants that do nothing

Earlier this year I gave my in-laws several of the pepper plants I started because I simply did not have enough room for them. Well recently they have been getting peppers and I thought I was doing good with a pepper that was around three feet long. The same plant in there garden has produced peppers that were at least six inches long. It takes a while to build up the soil and they have had the garden spot for literally years. I guess I am going to have to plant something in a container with better soil. Most of what i have in my yard is sand and or clay. I have six large oak trees and I have been told that the oak trees simply drain all of the nutrients out of the soil and make it hard for the other plants to live. True I have had (or I should say my husband) put fertilizer on them several times a year and it has helped some of the plants survive and dare I say thrive. The red pepper in the picture only measured three inches that's a big difference when my in laws who have better soil get the same pepper that is twice the size, or possibly larger. Gardening takes work, I'll just have to get some more containers and some decent soil to plant my plants in, if I want them to grow to any size worth eating.

My Cold Frame

This is the Cold Frame that my wonderfully supportive husband build for me last year as a Christmas gift.

Amaryllis growth

Back in 2009 I decided to try and grow an amaryllis bulb. I did not have much to work with but I did have the desire to try. It has not been easy but it has been rewarding. I made the decision this year to keep the bulbs outside when the weather started getting warm. The plants seem to do better when they have natural sunlight. The bulbs were in 5 inch pots in my cold frame. The cold frame as of now is only a large wooden box without a top. I took the top off because the plants would get to hot if I closed it, I guess you could say it looks like a large planter. Anyway I put the plants in there because if the wind is blowing the walls of the cold frame will protect the plants I don't have to worry about them. Yesterday I noticed several of the leaves of the bulbs were getting somewhat bigger that I expected. Anyway I decided to re pot one of the bulbs. I choose a bulb that had rather large leaves. I was surprised at just how large the bulb had gotten. I have a total of twenty bulbs I started in 2009 and I am going to re pot them all in six inch pots. I don't expect all of them to be as large as the one I most recently re potted but, at the rate this one is growing I do expect a bloom within the next two years.

Gardenia's are blooming

I looked outside my window this morning and the sight that greeted me really made me happy. Every year for the past few years my husband had been putting some fertilizer on the Gardenia bushes in the front of the house. Since he has been doing it they have been blooming. This year is no exception. They are called August Beauty, I guess because they bloom in August, when it is very hot. Well is has been very hot as of late and the plants just started blooming. The reason I planted them at the front of the house is I like the way they look and while in bloom they make the entire house smell so sweet. Also it is easy to root them, and easy to tell of the plants are alive because they are evergreen which means they stay green year round. If they start to die they simply won't be green anymore. I think Gardenia's are one of the prettiest flowers and the fact that they smell so sweet, I just think they are just about the perfect bush. The only problem I've had as far as them being a yard plant is they look leggy and I need to prune back so that they will look more like a bush. My husband said I massacred one last year because I cut it back so much last year. True I did cut it back more than most people would, and it probably won't bloom this year but this year it is starting to look like a bush instead of a few branches sticking out of the ground with a few leaves on it. I only did one, as an experiment if it does fill out I will do another one this year after they have stopped blooming, because you are not suppose to prune or cut back any shrub while it is blooming. You are suppose to wait until it has finished. So if I cut another one back it will be in the next few months.